article about "ghost villages" in Spain

[peterott]

There is a nice article with a lots of pictures of ghost villages in Spain, mainly in Northern Spain in a German online newspaper webpage (cost-free):

Lost Places: Spanien ist das Land der vielen Geisterdörfer - WELT

Rund 3000 entvölkerte Siedlungen soll es in Spanien geben, die meisten davon im Norden des Landes. Wir stellen sieben Geisterdörfer vor – ein jedes von ihnen fasziniert mit seiner eigenen Geschichte. Wer die Orte besuchen will, braucht etwas Abenteuergeist.

www.welt.de

Some of them are on the the camino routes, some are a bit away of them.
While hiking the desfiladero del rio puron (River Puron Gorge), I came across Ribera, which is described in the article, though the picture in the article isn't a nice one for Ribera. I found on wikiloc a better one showing the abandoned church and houses around it:

Or if I take my pic from April, which lacks the nice horses:



If I remember right, while travelling through with a rental car through Northern Catalonia and Aragon, I also passed a couple of such lost villages there as well, and there was a report on German TV about the "lost villages in Aragon" but also a "resuscitate of a village called Jánovas" on Arte TV (https://www.fernsehserien.de/arte-r...ueck-ein-geisterdorf-in-den-pyrenaeen-1357228).

 

[Bradypus]

You do not have to wander too far off the main routes to find abandoned villages in much of Spain. Where I live in the UK wealthy people will often choose to live in rural areas or tiny villages and then commute into nearby towns for work, shopping, schools or entertainment. Very different from Spain. When I walked through Foncebadon for the first time the only inhabitant was an elderly lady and her house was the only building in the village which had not been abandoned to fall into decay. Gronze now lists 9 albergues and hostals in that one mountain village. There is even a pizzeria! The survival and recovery of villages directly on the main Camino routes has been a remarkable phenomenon but it does not spread very far from the path itself.

 

[peterott]

That is correct. When I drove 3.000km with a rental car through Northern Spain, it was obvious that 10km away from any Camino, the villages looked partly rough. And if there wasn't any monastery, any gorge, any UNESCO heritage site or any other touristic highlight, the small villages struggled a lot.

 

[wisepilgrim]

This 3000 number has been floating around for a good ten years now. I have yet to hear a source for it.

There are a great many empty villages, that is true, but I don’t think the number is anywhere near that high.

Many evaporated after major works in the 60s severed them from easy transportation links.

 

[Paladina]

When I walked through Foncebadon for the first time the only inhabitant was an elderly lady and her house was the only building in the village which had not been abandoned to fall into decay. Gronze now lists 9 albergues and hostals in that one mountain village. There is even a pizzeria! The survival and recovery of villages directly on the main Camino routes has been a remarkable phenomenon but it does not spread very far from the path itself.

A village with nine albergues and a pizzeria but no permanent residents or grocery has been repurposed rather than recovered. I’d rather see a Spanish equivalent of the Irish Rural Resettlement Movement, a voluntary organisation that succeeded in relocating 800 city-based families to depopulated areas, mostly in the western half of the country, from the 1990s until government funding was cut nearly 30 years later. During its lifetime, the organisation persuaded owners of uninhabited houses to make them available at affordable rents to incomers. Derelict properties were also offered rent-free to those willing and able to restore them for their own use. The newcomers not only brought diverse skills, enthusiasm and plans for self-employment but also, most importantly, children, the lifeblood of any community. Of course, some of the settlers found it difficult to adapt to rural life, but many embraced the culture shock and prospered. In view of the current critical shortage of affordable housing, the scheme needs to be revived in Ireland and replicated in Spain, starting perhaps with some of those surplus albergues in Foncebadon.

 

[Bradypus]

Of course, some of the settlers found it difficult to adapt to rural life, but many embraced the culture shock and prospered.

I wonder how much of the depopulation trend in rural Spain is down to economic factors and changes in agricultural practice and how much is due to different attitudes towards rural life? In much of Spain it has struck me very forcefully how few occupied houses there are out amongst the fields and olive groves and vineyards. Mostly Spanish farmers seem to prefer to live in larger villages or towns and drive out to the land which they tend. Very unlike the UK and Ireland where farmers generally live in houses on their own land and their houses are often more isolated and spread over the landscape. Perhaps there is a critical size of population or range of facilities which Spanish people demand of their home villages and towns which simply cannot be met by many of these historic settlements now and which it might be difficult to rebuild? Galicia with its patchwork of small villages and smaller farms with a traditional mixture of arable and livestock has always struck me as an interesting exception and much closer to rural life as I have known it in the UK.

 

[Paladina]

I wonder how much of the depopulation trend in rural Spain is down to economic factors and changes in agricultural practice and how much is due to different attitudes towards rural life? In much of Spain it has struck me very forcefully how few occupied houses there are out amongst the fields and olive groves and vineyards. Mostly Spanish farmers seem to prefer to live in larger villages or towns and drive out to the land which they tend. Very unlike the UK and Ireland where farmers generally live in houses on their own land and their houses are often more isolated and spread over the landscape. Perhaps there is a critical size of population or range of facilities which Spanish people demand of their home villages and towns which simply cannot be met by many of these historic settlements now and which it might be difficult to rebuild? Galicia with its patchwork of small villages and smaller farms with a traditional mixture of arable and livestock has always struck me as an interesting exception and much closer to rural life as I have known it in the UK.

You may be right about Galician farmers’ preferences, but it seems that some villages are actively seeking people willing to relocate: they
volveralpueblo.cogeder.org

 

[davejsy]

There are certainly a lot around, and there's been various articles over the years where whole villages could be picked up for a 100k or similar. They do for certain have a certain charm and nostalgia to them (and some creepy!), but to wander among them imagine what stories those crumbling walls could tell is certainly spell-binding - at least for me. many will also demonstrate how nature can reclaim these villages in quite a short space of time.

One such place I always visit on my way down to NW Spain whenever I can is Tiermas (Aragon) - it is a hauntingly beautiful place. There is also another totally abandoned village a few km from here, and indeed I'd imagine many more.

 

[davejsy]

You may be right about Galician farmers’ preferences, but it seems that some villages are actively seeking people willing to relocate: they
volveralpueblo.cogeder.org

Yes many are now paying people to relocate and trying to appeal to the remote working communities via increased broad band coverage etc - I am not sure how well it is working.

Also as @Bradypus mentions it is somewhat different dynamics to say the UK with many Spanish much preferring city life knowing they have such beautiful rural areas on their doorsteps for the weekend. Another thing I find in much of Spain is that built up area's are much more pleasant than the equivalent would be in the UK. For instance you go to an area of mainly high-rises in the UK and it's not normally very pleasant, whereas you go to a similar place in Spain then the atmosphere I find is much nicer (take the Basque region as an example) - it just seems to work better - as do many parts of Spanish society compared to the UK.

Rural depopulation is still a big topic though, and only yesterday I was reading this article which they report yearly:

Los municipios de la Montaña Palentina perdieron en 2024 más de 40 habitantes

Diario de Valderrueda - Guardo se lleva la palma de la despoblación con 105 menos, y por el contrario Aguilar consigue sumar 90 más. De los 18 municipios, nueve ganaron población mientras qu ...

www.diariodevalderrueda.es

One thing that rural depopulation has benefitted is wildlife though with the wolf and bear repopulation directly correlated to the rural depopulation back in the 70's/80's.

 

[MinnehonkTom]

There is a nice article with a lots of pictures of ghost villages in Spain, mainly in Northern Spain in a German online newspaper webpage (cost-free):

Lost Places: Spanien ist das Land der vielen Geisterdörfer - WELT

Rund 3000 entvölkerte Siedlungen soll es in Spanien geben, die meisten davon im Norden des Landes. Wir stellen sieben Geisterdörfer vor – ein jedes von ihnen fasziniert mit seiner eigenen Geschichte. Wer die Orte besuchen will, braucht etwas Abenteuergeist.

www.welt.de

Some of them are on the the camino routes, some are a bit away of them.
While hiking the desfiladero del rio puron (River Puron Gorge), I came across Ribera, which is described in the article, though the picture in the article isn't a nice one for Ribera. I found on wikiloc a better one showing the abandoned church and houses around it:

Or if I take my pic from April, which lacks the nice horses:
View attachment 183357


If I remember right, while travelling through with a rental car through Northern Catalonia and Aragon, I also passed a couple of such lost villages there as well, and there was a report on German TV about the "lost villages in Aragon" but also a "resuscitate of a village called Jánovas" on Arte TV (https://www.fernsehserien.de/arte-r...ueck-ein-geisterdorf-in-den-pyrenaeen-1357228).

Montefurado is right on the Camino Primitivo between Puerto de Palo and Berducedo. It was long described as having one resident. But more recently it has seemed as if might be entirely abandoned. This is a stretch of the Primitivo with almost no services. It would be wonderful if someone moved back into Montefurado, fixed up one of the houses, and opened an albergue, a café or a tiendita - even if it only operated seasonally.

 

[oursonpolaire]

I wonder how much of the depopulation trend in rural Spain is down to economic factors and changes in agricultural practice and how much is due to different attitudes towards rural life? In much of Spain it has struck me very forcefully how few occupied houses there are out amongst the fields and olive groves and vineyards. Mostly Spanish farmers seem to prefer to live in larger villages or towns and drive out to the land which they tend. Very unlike the UK and Ireland where farmers generally live in houses on their own land and their houses are often more isolated and spread over the landscape. Perhaps there is a critical size of population or range of facilities which Spanish people demand of their home villages and towns which simply cannot be met by many of these historic settlements now and which it might be difficult to rebuild? Galicia with its patchwork of small villages and smaller farms with a traditional mixture of arable and livestock has always struck me as an interesting exception and much closer to rural life as I have known it in the UK.

In many places this phenomenon finds it origins in the fact that farmers worked on agricultural property owned by landlords; the farmers lived in the village, and walked back and forth to the land they worked-- the continuing influence of agricultural workers' unions is a result of this.

Another factor is the unsettled nature of rural life in Spain from the Napoleonic wars on-- not only were isolated farmhouses plagued by unemployed soldiers, there were in many areas a series of local conflicts (the Carlist wars), and instability lasted until well after the 1936-39 Civil War (cf. Rebecca Pawel's The Watcher in the Pine). Walking through Galicia, many manor houses or pazos were semi-fortified -- now they are charming casas rurales-- the Pazo de Beito near Boimorto is a good example.

 

[MinnehonkTom]

In many places this phenomenon finds it origins in the fact that farmers worked on agricultural property owned by landlords; the farmers lived in the village, and walked back and forth to the land they worked-- the continuing influence of agricultural workers' unions is a result of this.

Another factor is the unsettled nature of rural life in Spain from the Napoleonic wars on-- not only were isolated farmhouses plagued by unemployed soldiers, there were in many areas a series of local conflicts (the Carlist wars), and instability lasted until well after the 1936-39 Civil War (cf. Rebecca Pawel's The Watcher in the Pine). Walking through Galicia, many manor houses or pazos were semi-fortified -- now they are charming casas rurales-- the Pazo de Beito near Boimorto is a good example.

Thanks for your insights. And for the reminder of Rebecca Pawel’s entertaining mysteries. Worth reading them a 2nd time before I walk the Primitivo in May, especially “The Watcher in the Pines.”

 

[HappyValerie]

As I walk past these abandoned (& so many for sale) houses, I can't help but imagine the work & enthusiasm that went into the planning & building of each. The excitement upon completion & moving in. The stories if these remains could talk.
I am also quite bewildered by the variety & methods of "repairs" or "renovations" that some seem to have had over the years, & the variety of materials used. For many I shudder to think what my home country Building Standards would say.
All part of the charm of the Camino for me.

 

[Joseph Carmona]

You do not have to wander too far off the main routes to find abandoned villages in much of Spain. Where I live in the UK wealthy people will often choose to live in rural areas or tiny villages and then commute into nearby towns for work, shopping, schools or entertainment. Very different from Spain. When I walked through Foncebadon for the first time the only inhabitant was an elderly lady and her house was the only building in the village which had not been abandoned to fall into decay. Gronze now lists 9 albergues and hostals in that one mountain village. There is even a pizzeria! The survival and recovery of villages directly on the main Camino routes has been a remarkable phenomenon but it does not spread very far from the path itself.

You're quite right but the issue is not only Spain but quite a few European countries as well, Italy for instance has the same issue. It might not effect England so much because England is a much smaller country and you can commute to larger centres much quicker plus tv shows like escape to the country has made the trend more popular.

 

[Pelegrin]

As I walk past these abandoned (& so many for sale) houses, I can't help but imagine the work & enthusiasm that went into the planning & building of each. The excitement upon completion & moving in. The stories if these remains could talk.
I am also quite bewildered by the variety & methods of "repairs" or "renovations" that some seem to have had over the years, & the variety of materials used. For many I shudder to think what my home country Building Standards would say.
All part of the charm of the Camino for me.

Yes, those houses in Galicia were built a hundred years ago or more. They had no separated rooms on the first floor. Cows and other animals lived on the ground floor and also was the kitchen that was a fire on the floor ( lareira). No bathroom and electricity. Heating was the lareira and the cows. In summer the kitchen was packed with flies because the cows. Nevertheless, there were a lot of children who generally were happy and older people were important.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

there is a ghost town only 1.5 kilometers from my pueblo, Moratinos, called San Martin de la Fuente. There's a much bigger one about 15 km. south, (near the Madrid route) ironically named Villacreces. With the rise of the tractor and modern farming methods, the civil war, and a 1950's-era re-drawing of the agricultural property maps of Castilla y Leon, not so many people were needed to run a farm. During the 20th century hundreds of thousands of Spaniards migrated to cities to seek work, thousands more emigrated overseas and never returned. No one wants to live in a boring, rural town any more. A lot of smaller farm villages aged out of existence.
It's true you don't see single family homes standing alone in the fields; I think it's because that just wasn't safe for so long -- marauders of one kind or another abounded in this countryside for centuries. Water access is also an issue, as well as arable land. Villaverde, a tiny town between Moratinos and San Nicolas, ceased to exist about 400 years ago because the springs failed.
Be super careful when exploring the ghost towns and villages. A lot of the old wells are not sealed, and there are often deep cellars and bodega-caves beneath the rotten floorboards!

 

[davejsy]

I watched this quite interesting documentary type film based on a true story and set in a nearly deserted Galician village (in fact I think one of the characters in the film is now the sole remaining resident).

The Beasts - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Rebekah Scott]

"The Yellow Rain," or "La Lluvia Amarilla," is a masterpiece of a short novel by Julio Llamazares. It's the story of the last resident in a Pyreneean village. Highly recommended.

 

[Laurie Sanantone]

"The Yellow Rain," or "La Lluvia Amarilla," is a masterpiece of a short novel by Julio Llamazares. It's the story of the last resident in a Pyreneean village. Highly recommended.

Sr. Llamazares’ personal story is also interesting and related to the disappearance of rural villages. His birthplace in León province was flooded, along with five other towns, in a huge artificial lake.

I’ve always been fascinated by the village off to your left as you come down from the Cruz de Ferro into El Acebo. It looks so remote! Looking at Google Maps, I think it must be the village of Compludo? I found this article on the Castilla y León tourism website. Looks like Compludo is part of/en route to the Valle de Silencio?

The natural mysticism of the Thebaid Berciana

Position Espinoso de Compludo It was the 6th century, when a young man belonging to the Visigoth noble class discovered an isolated corner where his fat...

www.turismocastillayleon.com

 

[Paladina]

A few years ago, following the recommendation of an informative hospitalero in Navia, I took a detour to the Asturian pueblo of Pesoz. It’s not a ghost village, but it is a mere shadow of its former self. On arrival, I was given an impromptu tour by the retired headmaster of the last of the seven schools to have closed as a result of depopulation. Over the previous fifty years the population had declined from 3,000 to 150. The school where he spent his working life had been sympathetically converted to a very attractive albergue. Sadly, I was the only guest that night. Its survival appeared to depend on its capacity to host parties of schoolchildren visiting a village whose own children have to leave in order to attend school. The flight from the land is less a lifestyle choice than an economic necessity for many.

 

[Arctic_Alex]

If I had not relocated to the middle of nowhere in Northern Scandinavia around a decade ago, I would be rather tempted to settle in one of those abandoned places in Northern Spain ...

 

[Pelegrin]

A few years ago, following the recommendation of an informative hospitalero in Navia, I took a detour to the Asturian pueblo of Pesoz. It’s not a ghost village, but it is a mere shadow of its former self. On arrival, I was given an impromptu tour by the retired headmaster of the last of the seven schools to have closed as a result of depopulation. Over the previous fifty years the population had declined from 3,000 to 150. The school where he spent his working life had been sympathetically converted to a very attractive albergue. Sadly, I was the only guest that night. Its survival appeared to depend on its capacity to host parties of schoolchildren visiting a village whose own children have to leave in order to attend school. The flight from the land is less a lifestyle choice than an economic necessity for many.

In the times when Asturias was much better economically than Galicia ( now is worse) this western part ( where Galician is spoken) was even poorer than Galicia.

 

[Pelegrin]

If I had not relocated to the middle of nowhere in Northern Scandinavia around a decade ago, I would be rather tempted to settle in one of those abandoned places in Northern Spain ...

Yes, if you don' t mind solitude and rain, this wood be a good place to live.

 

[davejsy]

Sr. Llamazares’ personal story is also interesting and related to the disappearance of rural villages. His birthplace in León province was flooded, along with five other towns, in a huge artificial lake.

I’ve always been fascinated by the village off to your left as you come down from the Cruz de Ferro into El Acebo. It looks so remote! Looking at Google Maps, I think it must be the village of Compludo? I found this article on the Castilla y León tourism website. Looks like Compludo is part of/en route to the Valle de Silencio?

The natural mysticism of the Thebaid Berciana

Position Espinoso de Compludo It was the 6th century, when a young man belonging to the Visigoth noble class discovered an isolated corner where his fat...

www.turismocastillayleon.com

I think this is the place you are thinking of?

I think it is Carracedo de Compludo.

​

 

[Laurie Sanantone]

I think this is the place you are thinking of?
View attachment 183401
I think it is Carracedo de Compludo.

​

Yes, thats’s it! Thank you!

 

[Pelegrin]

On my walks on the mountains between Asturias and Galicia I found some people living in " abandoned villages". In Allande municipality ( capital Pola) in a village with no road and public electricity I found a girl from Madrid living alone and a young couple from Málaga with a little child. They had to walk one km with the child everyday to get to the car that was parked in an unpaved road to go to school. Also, in another Allande village ( with electrecity and unpaved road in this case) lives for many years a couple ( he is from Germany and she is from Netherlands) with two children who had to stay in Cangas de Narcea to do secondary.